Canvasback Decoy

Dateca. 1925

Attributed to Joseph Sieger (1871-1959)

MediumPainted wood, glass.

DimensionsOverall: 10 x 15 1/2 x 6 1/4in. (25.4 x 39.4 x 15.9cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1977.702.1

DescriptionNicely-shaped carved and painted wooden decoy, a male canvasback. His head and neck are one separate piece fastened to the body. Bottom 3/4" separate and nailed or screwed on. Hollow body. Possibly weighted inside body. Main part of the body is white. Tail feathers painted black, coming forward in sharp triangular point at middle back, but coming forward in soft, feathered line to either side, below this and continuing in this manner underneath body. Breast feathers painted black and again "feathered" at join, with white of main body. Neck is a dark rust red, the color being sharply separated from the black of the breast feathers in horizontal line, above and nearly paralleling the mechanical join of head/neck to body. Rust red very gradually and imperceptibly shades into black in "cheek" area behind eye on either side. Bill is very beautifully delineated by crisp, raised outline where it joins the head, sharply angled at top of beak then rounding out into curve of beak tip.
Label TextFor sheer elegance and dignity, few decoys match the canvasbacks carved by Joseph Sieger. Their extended necks and high arching backs give Sieger's ducks a stateliness usually reserved for swans and geese.

The carver was born and raised near Lake Poygan, Wisconsin, an area particularly well known to canvasback hunters in the early twentieth century. Sieger hunted wildfowl and became a masterful decoy carver. Stylistically, his canvasbacks recall earlier examples made by August Moak (1852-1942) of Tustin, Wisconsin.ProvenanceUnidentified woman; David J. Spengler, Hinsdale, Ill.; Gene King, Monroe Center, Ill.; A. David Pottinger, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.